Romney Refuses To Explain How His Medicare Plan Differs From Ryan’s

…the Republican nominee found himself on a baking airport tarmac Monday afternoon acting a lot like his old self: Dodging reporters’ questions, avoiding specific policy prescriptions, and generally projected the sort of fence-straddling caution that many thought he’d retired with his bold veep pick…

Despite days of his aides insisting that the nominee was not beholden to his running mate’s lightning-rod budget proposal — a vision that is the sole reason for Ryan’s fame, and his place on the ticket — Romney failed to answer four separate questions about where, exactly, he differed with Ryan. Instead, he said, “I can’t imagine any two people who have exactly the same positions.”

Reporters came away from the gaggle unclear on where Romney stood on the issue, Medicare, that could swing the election in Florida. The message was so muddled that, within hours, the campaign had to dispatch its chief policy wonk, Lanhee Chen, to clarify the candidate’s position — a regular occurrence on the Romney trail, but something Ryan, a full-throated advocate for aggressive entitlement changes, has likely never had to do.